Saudi Arabian authorities are still widely violating fundamental human rights both within and outside of the nation while the Council convenes to approve the Universal Periodic Review of the kingdom. The government’s persistent and historical suppression of autonomous civil society and critical voices obstructs development, and reforms are still insufficient.
Saudi Arabia’s iron grip on dissent
Numerous human rights advocates and defenders are incarcerated for extended periods of time for questioning the authority of the government or pushing for political and human rights changes. Some were given lengthy prison terms for supposed offenses stemming only from their nonviolent social media posts. Mohammed al-Ghamdi, a retired teacher, was condemned to death by Saudi Arabia’s Specialized Criminal Court just a year ago based only on his nonviolent social media statements. Even after a few changes were implemented, migrant laborers are still unable to change occupations or leave the nation. Wage theft is rife, and workers continue to pay outrageous recruiting costs that companies are required by law to reimburse.
One of the most vulnerable and least protected groups is still domestic workers. Workers outside are subjected to hazardously high temperatures, which can be fatal or have long-term health effects. Schools, hospitals, water and food infrastructure, and other civilian facilities that the coalition led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia struck during its illegal strikes are still damaged or completely destroyed. Neither Saudi Arabia nor any member of the coalition has sufficiently compensated its victims or established meaningful responsibility for its misdeeds.
Crushing free speech in the Kingdom
The systematic and widespread executions of migrants and asylum seekers by Saudi border guards at the Saudi-Yemen borders have not been the subject of any inquiry. If the murders were a part of a planned plan to kill migrants, they would be considered crimes against humanity. States have to put pressure on Saudi Arabia to act quickly and decisively to carry out every proposal made by the UPR. Amnesty International stated that the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group report on Saudi Arabia, which was released following the public review of the country’s human rights record, should act as a guide for the minimal steps that the Saudi government must take to comply with international human rights law. 354 recommendations from 135 UN member states were included in the report; many of them urged the nation to take significant steps to ensure reforms, such as ensuring the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly; doing away with the death penalty; defending the rights of migrant workers; and doing away with all forms of discrimination against women.
Dissenting voices silenced in Saudi Arabia
“Amnesty International’s Middle East Researcher Dana Ahmed stated that without genuine human rights reform, no amount of money spent on image laundering and sportswashing campaigns can conceal the rapidly escalating repression in the country.” “That so many UN member states took this opportunity to confront Saudi Arabia about its litany of human rights abuses and press the country’s authorities for reform shows that,” Ahmed said. The recommendations of the evaluation should serve as a wake-up call for Saudi Arabian authorities to stop their most severe human rights breaches, such as their unrelenting attacks on freedom of speech, their execution of juvenile offenders, and their mistreatment and torture of migrants. Instead of falling for Saudi Arabia’s false promises of change, the international community should use its combined might to force the government to implement important human rights reforms.
Every few years, the UN Human Rights Council reviews each and every UN member state’s record on human rights as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). After the third review in 2018, Saudi Arabia is currently completing its fourth review. A government delegation received suggestions and answered queries from nations on a variety of human rights-related topics last week in Geneva. The Human Rights Council will approve the review’s final findings in June, and Saudi Arabia will either accept or take notice of the suggestions.
Saudi Arabia’s war on human rights activists
Amnesty International expressed concerns in its July 2023 submission to the United People’s Review Tribunal (UPR) regarding the growing suppression of free speech and the heightened use of anti-terrorism and cybercrime legislation to quell dissent; the prosecution of female human rights advocates; the persistent breaches of due process and unfair trials before the Specialized Criminal Court; the increasing number of capital punishments; the formalization of discrimination against women through a new Personal Status Law; the ongoing arbitrary detention and forcible deportation of migrant workers; the forced eviction of thousands of residents as part of a plan to develop the city of Jeddah; and the transgressions by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.